


Finding Magic

by imjusttheoutgoingsidekick



Category: Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Medieval, Deaf Racetrack Higgins, F/M, It’s, M/M, theres lots else but I’m really tired, wow okay
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-08
Updated: 2018-08-15
Packaged: 2019-06-23 15:45:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15609624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imjusttheoutgoingsidekick/pseuds/imjusttheoutgoingsidekick
Summary: How will a ragtag gang of young magicians take down an unfair king,,, stay tuned for more.





	1. The Forest

**Author's Note:**

> This is just exposition, but it’s pretty cool. I’m just setting up the world so bear with me. 
> 
> (Ps, sorry for crappy formatting)

Antonio was shaking, his head filled with thoughts about his markings. He was a Magic and a powerful one at that. This was the worst case scenario. Antonio was already different enough so why did he have to be a Magic? His Marking was well hidden, for now, resting just above his hip, but what was he to do if his father asked? Magics were the lowest level in society. If you were a Magic, you were automatically exiled and sent to live in the Black Forest. Antonio knew what had to be done.

He grabbed his glasses off the bedside table and took his lantern from where it hung on its hook. The hidden box of matches was shoved in his pocket and he opened his bedroom window. The breeze blew out his lantern but that didn’t matter. The morning sun was still yet to rise, and the dew was fresh on the ground. The air was crisp and fresh in a way that it only was during early springtime hours. Antonio weaseled his way out of the small window, having to go headfirst and falling on his face in the process. Thankfully no one was around to see him.

He didn’t hear the caw of a crow as he made his way across the grass. He didn’t see them. Four crows watched him leave.

The black forest was a half hours ride by horse from Antonio’s house, but he didn’t have that kind of luxury. He would have to walk, which meant the time would double. By the time he reached the edge of the forest, the sun was beginning to rise. Tentatively, he entered the forest. The forest itself was magical, with paths that led you away from where you were supposed to be going. The only guide you could trust was the Raven. If a raven found you, you were safe. Otherwise, you were doomed.

Antonio walked along, brushing his fingers over the trunk of one of the trees. He thought back on the days spent reading in secret. The school library was always a great place for research, and Antonio had been a curious boy. He knew all about the Magic society. His Marking was a flower, bursting with purple swirls, meaning he would specialize in potions. That made sense, seeing as most potion makers grew some of their own ingredients. Antonio had a garden back home, and it was his favorite place. He could sit between rows of Rosemary and Lavender and just think.

Lost in his thoughts, Antonio didn’t realize the Raven perched in the trees. It watched him and cawed, but the boy didn’t look up. The Raven cocked it’s head and cawed again. Antonio still didn’t hear him. The Raven cawed once more, and flew down, landing on Antonio’s shoulder and pecking at his head.  
   
The boy was startled out of his thoughts and began to swat at the bird, before realizing it was a Raven. A voice filled Antonio’s head. ‘Follow me,’ it said.  
The Raven took flight and landed in a tree about fifteen feet away. ‘Follow me.’

Antonio followed, and every time he got close enough, the bird took flight again. Every few minutes, the voice repeated it’s mantra.

‘Follow me. Follow me. Follow me.’

Antonio followed the bird until he could walk no more. His feet were sore and he was aching all over. He slumped against a tree, leaning back against its trunk. The sun was sinking below the horizon, and Antonio knew night in the Black Forest was dangerous, but he could march on no longer.

The voice filled his head once more.

‘Follow me.’

Antonio stared up at the Raven which was perched on a branch maybe five feet away. It looked down at him and cocked it’s head as if to say, “I’m stronger than you, and I’m a bird.” He concentrated hard, sending his thoughts directly to the bird. ‘I can’t keep going.’

Antonio swore the bird shook its head. ‘Follow me. It’s just a little farther. Follow me.’

Antonio shook his head and closed his eyes. It didn’t last long though, for the Raven flew down and bit sharply at his ear. He swatted the bird, cursing mentally and standing.

‘There’s nothing here! This isn’t going anywhere, just let me sleep,’ he thought. But the bird just bit him again and flew off. Antonio knew he was in trouble now. If a Raven left you, it wouldn’t come back. He ran after the bird, closing his eyes and feeling where it was. He realized now, while running through the forest with his eyes closed, that he should not have overlooked this talent as a child. He was a skilled navigator and had the ability to sense where things were and easily find his way around them. He dodged trees and jumped over roots, running with his eyes closed.

He kept going until he ran into something. His eyes shot open just before he collided into a warm body. He saw a flash of dark hair as he hit the ground. He looked up to see a boy about his age, with dark hair and dark eyes, his face lit by the lantern that had fallen beside him. The boy was chattering a mile a minute, probably apologizing, maybe reprimanding. But Antonio didn’t know. He’d never know, as long as the guy kept talking.

Antonio shook his head. The boy gave him a look and repeated his words. Antonio shook his head again, harder this time, and tapped his ear. The boy gave him another odd look and spoke again. The way he moved his mouth made it seem like he was speaking slower and a bit louder. Antonio would’ve screamed if he could. ‘I’m deaf,’ he thought rather forcefully. ‘I’ll never be able to hear you.’

The Raven swooped down and pecked the boy’s head, cawing at him. His eyes went wide and he turned back to Antonio. ‘You’re deaf?’ Antonio was shocked that the boy knew sign language, and quickly nodded. ‘Come with me.’

Antonio stood, his energy renewed upon meeting someone new. He followed the boy for a while, before they came to a large oak tree. The boy turned around, ‘we have to be quiet,’ he signed.

Antonio rolled his eyes, ‘That’ll be easy.’

The boy, whose name Antonio still didn’t know, knocked three times on the tree. Antonio was blinded by a flash of light, and when he regained his sight, the forest had melted away. The only thing to remain was the large oak tree. 

The boy grabbed his hand, and an electric shock ran through Antonio’s hand. It wasn’t the kind that hurt, more the kind that tickled and tingled with the promise of a new beginning. 

Antonio followed him to a little cottage, with a thatched roof and a little chimney. It looked plump and cozy and he couldn’t wait to step inside. 

The inside was a completely different story. It was impossibly bigger, and he couldn’t help but wonder how they had gotten the outside to fit around what was held within. The boy pulled him across the main room and up a tightly wound spiral staircase, stopping when they came to a ladder. The boy reached up and touched the ceiling and a circle opened up. He quickly climbed up the ladder and beckoned to follow him.

The room was fairly small, with a desk in one corner and a loft bed in the other. The space under the bed had three shelves, all covered in books. Antonio immediately gravitated towards them. He let his fingers brush along the spines as he read the titles. There were books he had read before, and some he hadn’t. It was fascinating. 

He felt a tap on his shoulder and turned around. The boy handed him a change of clothes. ‘Put these on, I’ll turn around so you can change. We have to be quiet, it’s past curfew.’ He began to turn around but stopped, ‘I’m-‘ he made a quick movement that was obviously his Name Sign, then shook his head. ‘S-e-a-n,’ he spelled it out. 

Antonio smiled at the boy, whose name he now knew. He quickly made his Name Sign, before spelling it out, ‘A-n-t-o-n-i-o. Or T-o-n-y.”

Sean flashed him a grin, ‘I’ll call you T.’ He turned around to give Antonio some privacy. He changed into the clothes, long pants and a lose fitting white shirt with buttons all down the front. He left the top two buttons open and tapped Sean’s shoulder. 

‘Thank you for the clothes,’ he signed. 

‘No problem,’ Sean replied. He looked around the room for a bit before his eyes settled on a little loveseat pushed into a corner. ‘Take my bed,’ he signed. ‘I’ll sleep there.’

Antonio shook his head frantically, but Sean nodded. The look in his dark eyes let him know that Sean wouldn’t be taking no for an answer. Antonio resigned to climb up the ladder into Sean’s bed and lay down. He peered down over the edge to see Sean lay down on the loveseat. Their eyes met. 

‘Thank you.’

Sean smiled a little, ‘goodnight.’ With that he rolled over, no longer facing the other boy. 

Antonio laid down, staring at the ceiling and drifting into unconsciousness, his head full of thoughts of this newfound world.


	2. Meeting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Off sorry this took so long to post

Morning came with a soft and warm sunrise, a new dawn shedding a new light on the darkness of the time before. Antonio woke up to gentle sunlight filtering through a crack in the roof and rolled over. Sean was sitting in the floor reading. A few moments later he looked up and noticed the boy staring at him.

‘You’re up,’ he signed. ‘Good.’ Sean motioned Antonio over and the boy climbed down from the bed, going to sit beside him. He peered down at the book which Sean had closed and read the title. Or, at least, he tried to read the title. It was in a language he had never seen before, and didn’t know how to read.

Sean looked him in the eyes, ‘it’s called Healing Herbs. Can you read?’

Antonio nodded, placing his hands neatly in his lap, waiting for Sean to tell him what to do. He stood up, turning to root through a drawer in his desk and pulling out a small leather bound notebook. He opened to a random page and grabbed a pencil, writing something down before showing it to Antonio.

‘I’m taking you to our strike meeting. It’s me and my brother and my sister and a few other kids our age. You can sit with the Scribe so that you can read what’s going on.’ The message was followed by a little smiley face.

Antonio nodded again, standing up to follow Sean out of the house.

*****

The ‘meeting’ was held in a little meadow in the woods, and when they got there, about a half a dozen kids were already there. Antonio watched as Sean waved over two kids, a boy about their age with dark hair and paint stained pants, and a girl who looked a little younger with a pixie cut and fists clenched at her sides.

Sean said something to them, before turning to Antonio. ‘T, this is my brother Jack,’ he made a name sign and spelled it out. ‘He’s the leader of our strike. And this is my sister,’ his hands hesitated and he turned around, giving the girl a look. ‘My sister Smalls.’ He spelled that out too, then made her name sign.

Antonio quirked an eyebrow, but Sean made a dismissive gesture and sat down at the base of a tree. He pulled out the notebook and started writing a list of names.

When he was done, a few more kids had arrived and he started pointing them out. Antonio tried to remember them all, staring at each face to commit it to memory. He had already done that with Sean.

The little one was Les, and his siblings were David and Sarah, twins. Finch was the one with curly hair and a slingshot, and Elmer was the one always sporting a smile. The tall kid with the glasses was Specs and the one with the eye patch was Blink. JoJo has brown hair and kind eyes. Romeo was short and jumpy. Bill and Darcy were the sophisticated looking ones. Albert was the one with the mess of red hair. Buttons had spoons in his pockets. Mush was always tripping over his own feet.

Antonio leaned back against the tree and sighed to himself, closing his eyes for a moment. He thought about everything that had happened in the last 24 hours.

He had turned 17 and gotten his mark. He had left his family. He had met a nice cute boy- wait what? Sean was just nice. And objectively speaking, he was fairly attractive too, with his muscular build and dark hair to compliment his dark eyes, and that little gap between his teeth.

He was shook from his thoughts when Sean flicked his ear. Antonio opened his eyes to see Sean point at a scroll hovering just above their laps. Writing appeared on it, and Antonio had to contain his shock in order to read the notes from the meeting. He had tuned in halfway into the conversation so he was a bit lost, but he did his best.

 

_Jack: ...And so we need to find a way to get in there. Anyone got any ideas?_

 

Out of the corner of his eye, Antonio saw a few hands raise.

 

_Albert: I say we go in at night. There’s gotta be windows somewhere._

_Specs: there are, how else would I be getting the letters?_

_Elmer: wouldn’t that be dangerous? All of us going at once, we could get caught._

_Les: if Jack says it’s a good plan, I say the same._

 

Antonio struggled to keep up with the conversations, his mind lagging as he tried to process everything. He rubbed the bridge of his nose and tuned back in to the conversation on the page.

 

_Spot: I don’t care, we have to go_

_Davey: It’s dangerous we co-_

_Spot: my brother’s in there, I have to help him get out Dave. You know what they’re doing to him?_

_Smalls: He’s my brother too Sean-_

_Spot: I know that Sophia. He’s Jack’s brother too-_

 

Antonio shook his head. Sean- Spot -Sophia- what? What had he missed?

 

_Mush: I say we storm the castle. Pulitzer’s a massive douche anyway, he deserves it._

_Finch: yeah right, storm him and then what? Die?_

 

Pulitzer? Castle? Were they talking about the king?

 

_Albert: what do we care what he thinks! He’s a Jackass anyway, I say we stand up to him._

_Blink: I second that._

_Smalls: third_.

_Jack: we’re going to stand up! We just need a plan of action for how to... do it._

_Sarah: like what Jack?_

 

There was nothing on the page for a few moments.

 

_Jack: I don’t know, Davey’s the brains of this operation._

_Davey: I don’t know what to do either, Jack._

 

After that there was just a lot of noise clutter, and it all went by too fast for Antonio to keep up. After a few minutes the meeting seemed to come to an end and Sean stood, pulling Antonio up with him.

They walked with Jack and Smalls back to the little house. The As the other two went in Sean hung back. He beckoned Antonio to follow him to a little stable area behind the house. They climbed up into the loft and sat in the hay.

Antonio caught Sean’s eye, his mind a jumbled mess. ‘What-‘ He paused, his hands twitching idly as he searched for words. ‘What was that about? I’m really confused, this is all new to me.’

Sean nodded, a look of understanding in his eyes. He pulled out the notebook and started writing. It was quite a while before Sean shook his hand out and passed the notebook over to Antonio.

‘I know it’s confusing when everything is new, I remember what that felt like. Here’s the deal. King Pulitzer? He’s a total douche lord who thinks Magic’s and Non-Magic’s should be separated. We don’t think that’s fair. Some of us have friends, family even, outside of the magic community. We can’t see them ever because we’re not allowed out of the forest. We’re hear to take a stand.’

Antonio looked up at Sean, nodding slightly. He sat the book down and signed. ‘That makes... sense. But what were they talking about, getting someone out?’

Sean looked down, before meeting Antonio’s eyes. ‘We do night runs where we check in the Magics he has locked in the dungeon. It’s pretty dangerous, if you get caught you get put directly into the dungeon. There was a run one night, that didn’t go exactly as planned.’

He took a deep breath and blew it out, his eyes closing momentarily.

‘They got my brother. Crutchie.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come check me out on tumblr @imjusttheoutgoingsidekick or @overly-attractive-newsboys
> 
> Comment to validate a struggling writer!

**Author's Note:**

> Comments would make my week!! I hope you enjoyed, come tell @overly-attractive-newsboys on tumblr!!


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